Tell us about your new book.
Secret Seekers Society and the Beast of Bladenboro follows the young protagonists Hunter Glenn, and Eliza Lynn through an adventure ripe with adversity, paranormal monsters, secret societies, and most haunting of all, a life without their parents. It all happens one fall afternoon when they learn of their parent’s deaths in an over seas plane crash. The book follows the siblings as they are dropped off at their new guardian’s home, an ancient and creepy mansion known only as the Belmonte Estate. Here they unravel the secrets of their parent’s true identities, the origin of the mysterious mansion, and their inheritance into an ancient secret society of monster hunters known as Seekers.

What genre is it?
Young Adult Fantasy/Paranormal.

What kind of readers will it appeal to?
All age groups, but focused primarily for Young Adults 13 and older. It mixes fantasy, and real life historical mysteries in the paranormal field.

How long did it take to write?
I wrote the book in six months. Editing took an additional two months.

What was the most challenging part of your creative process?
I wrote this story originally as a Christmas present to my niece and nephew, who the two protagonists are written after. The most challenging part was to fictionalize them enough to where I was not growing too close to my perception of their narrative identities. I had to disengage with their true selves (being their uncle, I view them as angels, with no character flaws, I’m their uncle so I can think that way) and I had to make them “real” and with fault and issues that created juxtaposition in this fantastical world I entwined them in. I also had to disengage myself with their fictionalized characters, simply put, because I gave the characters some very extreme measures in which they had to endure. I kept thinking “what would Hunter and Elly say and do when ‘x’ happens. It was a weird way of developing their characters. As they story grew, and I realized the book was going to become more than just a novella for their christmas present, I had to rethink and rebuild the original concept and open it up to a more vivid world.

Wow, that’s a sweet Christmas present. We hope they loved it. Tell us a bit more about yourself.
My name is Joseph Laurence Hickey. I have a bachelors degree in creative writing from Saginaw Valley state University. I pretty much have been writing all my life, and have dedicated much of my free time to honing the craft. I have another indie book under my belt I wrote over five years ago, and after that i dabbled here in there in short literary fiction. I have always been a fan of the Young Adult genre, and after my niece and nephew grew up enough to start reading and loving books, my sister asked me one random day if I would ever write them into one of my stories. This book fits into my life so well. I love being an uncle, I love fantasy books, and I have a huge fascination with the paranormal field and fringe science. When I am not writing, I head up a local paranormal investigation team in mid Michigan called, MIParanormal.

Have you got a blog where readers can keep up with your work? How can we follow you on Facebook and/or Twitter?
www.secretseekerssociety.com.
@jlhickey81.
http://www.facebook.com/JosephLaurenceHickey.

Where can we buy your book?
Right now, through smashwords. I was just accepted into their premium catalog and I currently waiting for my book to generate into all the applicable digital forms, (ibooks,epub,amazon,nook, etc.) Should be any day now!

What’s next?
Self promotion of the book is key. I am spending five to eight hours a day outside of my ten 50 hours work week social networking and trying to build a strong rapport with multiple communities. I also have began work on the second book in the series.